Iraq: To the entire WORLD, #IRAQIS are coming…

Iraqi people were inspired the revolutions around the Arab world and announced their own day of rage on 25th February. The main demonstration centred on Tahrir Square in Baghdad but there were similar protests all over the country. @ArabPeoplewrote:

#Iraq just started and it will surprise the entire #Arab world. No other revolt that started in 17+ locations. It’s just the beginning.

The greatest thing is , people’s intension is not to make coias or destroy…

Another pleasing thing is, people prayed “Friday’s prayer” together in Al Tahreer in Baghdad , Sunnis and Shiites together and they shouted ” we’re brothers Sunnis and Shiites and we’re not going to sell this country”, the same thing happened in Sulaymania when Kurds and Arabs prayed together .. the citizens are united, it is the government that try to separate us and extend cultic , but it’s not going to happen, no matter how tricky and pity plans they make..

I pray for a new hopeful future, and today I am proud of Iraqis, I know how great people we have here, and how much the Iraqis endured not only through the last 7 years, but since Saddam took control ..

Maliki’s scare tactics won’t work with Iraqis anymore and only serve to undermine his credibility. Iraqis are fed up with cronyism, corruption …

Typical reaction from the clerical establishment which wants to see Iraq’s Shia remain under its thumb in order to keep their coffers full. These anti-corruption protests sweeping the country from Sulaimaniya to Basrah are a huge threat to those who are impeding progress in the ‘democratic’ Iraq.

The course of conduct [the Iraqi government] has employed in approaching these demonstrations was EXACTLY like the one all the surrounding tyrannies employed: anxiety borne out of a deep-seated uncertainty in its own legitimacy, the too-late scramble to make promises, the questioning of the protests’ background and intentions using old bogey-men … I am SOLIDLY against this government now.

The demos also showed how the government is weak and terrified from the people when pushed thousands of security forces to seal off the roads, mainly the bridge that leads to the already heavily fortified Green Zone when erected tall concrete blast walls.

None of the government officials dared to show up before the demonstrators, but instead they only talked to State-run TV …

It is right that today’s protests ended on the ground, but they are still live inside the protesters. What we witnessed today was only a small ice ball that just started to roll and it will get bigger day after day.

In contrast to Maliki accusing the protestors of being supporters of Saddam, Layla Anwar the nearest thing among Iraqi bloggers to a Saddamist took a somewhat different view of the protests:

Protest my ass. Where were you when the tanks rolled in ? where were you when the sectarian Shiites and their turbaned mullahs swayed you with a couple of hundred dollars for a finger dipped in purple ink for a “democratic” vote…

Where were you when we escaped in droves, living the lives of dogs in exile…where were you when the militias you praised and danced for decimated us all? Where the fuck were you?

Where were you when you let another sectarian whore from Iran take power again, for a second tenure and you sat and talked of national reconciliation and ballot boxes ?!

Where were you when the Iraqi Resistance was struggling against the invader ALONE ?

…

Demanding better living conditions from puppets is IDIOCY. Hundreds of foreign companies are making a living off your backs, bringing in their own staff and leaving you, so called educated class working as blue collars in your own country…

So where were you ? …

Give me a break you hypocrites.

Iraq is my biggest love and you are my biggest disappointment.

Go protest as much as you like, I will not lend you my voice. I’ve been a lone voice for the past 5 years and suffered the worst abuse in your name. Go protest all you like.